6 recommended communities to discuss podcasting

When Google+ added the Communities feature, discussion and participation exploded in many niches. Jeffrey Powers created the Podcasters community and it has quickly grown to the largest on Google+ (more than 1,400 at this time). This community also has the moderating support from several big names in the podcasting space, such as Ray Ortega and even Cliff Ravenscraft! I’m also a moderator.

Honorable mention: Podcasting Technology Resources. This group is much smaller but is the official Google+ extension of the LinkedIn Group (next point). It’s nearly 500 members are very active and quick to participate in conversations.

Most of the other podcasting communities are ghost towns or filled with episode spam.

LinkedIn attracts a professional crowd and you’ll see that in the quality of discussions in Podcasting Technology Resource Group, created by Martin Brossman. You’ll find several business podcasters in this group looking for help to succeed or sharing knowledge from their success.

Most of the other podcasting groups are ghost towns or filled with episode spam.

Megan Enloe (once known as the “Podcast Junky”) started the Podcast Community Facebook group and it now has the popular endorsement from New Media Expo. This is a very active community but also has strict rules against self-promotion (see my etiquette tips below).

Quora is a different kind of community from most others. This is a social-Q&A format where a visitor posts their question and receives multiple answers. You can comment on questions and answers, and suggest edits. Once you post an answer, you can only edit it or comment on it and others. This isn’t a discussion forum but a place to find answers.

You can also vote answers up and down or request specific members to answer questions that they may not have noticed.

Reddit is the new Digg, and it has a loyal following. The has great conversations between average podcasters.

6 tips for community etiquette

Search first. It’s possible that someone has already asked your question or something similar. So search the community first. But also try Google for your question, before crowding a community with questions.

Ask great questions. When you can’t easily find the answer, ask great questions that will inspire conversation. Try to avoid yes and no questions (e.g., “Should I use WordPress?”), but use open questions (e.g., “Why should I use WordPress and what are the best plugins?”). Your question may need more explanation and examples, too, which help make it great. For example, instead of just posting, “Why does my podcast sound bad?” tell what your setup is, how you’re doing things, what you’re expecting, and link to a specific sample of what you want to fix.

Don’t self-promote. Communities can be a great place to share your podcast and grow your audience, but that shouldn’t be your reason for joining and some communities have strong rules against this. Introduce yourself and let people know about your podcast, but then don’t post about every new episode. Usual exceptions to this are to post what would truly benefit other community members (for example, “Check out my review of this podcasting app”). If you’re bordering on too much self-promotion, consider asking your followers to share your information to the group if they believe in it enough.

Participate in conversations. You have your own experience and opinions that are valuable to everyone else! So if you have something to share that hasn’t already been said, add to the conversation. Just don’t hijack a conversation to discuss something else.

Share relevant resources. If you find something that will help other podcasters, share it in the community. Many of them may have already seen it, but the creator will always appreciate your sharing their content and there will always be someone who hadn’t seen it or needs to be convinced why they should check it out. Sharing a little nugget from the resource is always better than a mere link and title.

Give solutions. When you post about a problem and then figure it out, the Internet’s worst-every response is, “Figured it out. Thanks.” Share what you did and it will be helpful to others!

Upcoming WordPress and Audacity webinars

The core software to successful blogging or podcasting is WordPress. But if you don’t know how to use it, you’ll struggle with building your online platform. Tickets will go on sale soon for my “Learn WordPress” webinar on Saturday, April 20 at noon (EDT/GMT-4).

My first Audacity webinar was a great success and was highly praised. This is where I teach the basics and some of the more advanced techniques of using Audacity for podcasting and other audio-editing. If you want to edit your own audio for high quality and with efficiency, then join me for my “Learn Audacity” webinar on Saturday, May 18, at noon (EDT/GMT-4).

Tickets will be $100 for either of these 90-minute webinars (plus Q&A), or $175 for both. Reserve your seat soon!

I am a member in most of these communities. Will be checking out the Quorra and Reddit areas as well. Nice work Daniel.

http://DanielJLewis.net/about Daniel J. Lewis

Thanks for chiming in, Rich! Which is your favorite community?

http://www.mytakeradio.com Rich

That’s a tough one but I notice I visit the G+ groups often. I’d use the FB groups in second place.

Ben Avery

I have been a part of Google Plus for a while — but I just don’t have the hang of it. I keep hearing that Google Plus is a great thing to use, but I just can;t figure out how to get the most out of it.

I’ll have to check out the community . . .

http://DanielJLewis.net/about Daniel J. Lewis

The Podcasters community on Google+ may just be enough to entice you to stick around and enjoy the experience.

http://inallairness.com/ Adam

Hey Daniel – this was a great episode, thanks for the suggestions. Half of the communities are new to me. I look forward to investigating further and helping build my podcast professionalism.

http://DanielJLewis.net/about Daniel J. Lewis

It’s great to see you in those communities now, Adam!

http://www.cestaujourdhui.com/ Dominic Sicotte

Thanks for another great post Daniel!

I was wondering if you know where I can find any “podcasting mastermind group” besides Cliff’s Podcast Mastermind. I am looking to join a small group of podcasters with monthly “virtual meetings”.

Thanks and have a great day!

Dominic

http://DanielJLewis.net/about Daniel J. Lewis

I’ll email you about some ideas.

Marian Pierre-Louis

I was listening to your podcast today while organizing some photos. I was reminded that you so deserved that award. Consistently great content! Thanks Daniel!

http://DanielJLewis.net/about Daniel J. Lewis

That’s very kind of you, Marian! Thank you!

Polarizing_Images

As I listened to this podcast, I was thinking about Feedburner and whether or not Google would not shut it down because content creators would be upset enough to not use Google’s other services. Maybe I am a bit jaded, but I think Google actually wouldn’t care too much about that.

We (yes, I am including myself in this group) have short memory spans and we;re also pretty pragmatic. If Google messes things up for us by closing Feedburner, if there is another Google service that will help me, I’d likely still use those other service. Grudgingly, granted, but I’d still use it.

either way, just the thought of Feedburner shutting down lends a lot of weight to your advice of owning your RSS URL.

Rob

http://DanielJLewis.net/about Daniel J. Lewis

I just remembered the FeedBurner redesign that Google was so proud of and I even reviewed a couple years ago. But what happened to it? Forgotten.

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